Archive for the 'Ammunition' Category

What a dumb article.

• A World War II-era AR-15 ammo factory is linked to several mass shootings, the Times found.
• The Lake City Army Ammunition Plant was built to supply the US military.
• But the plant shifted to commercial sales in the last decade.

A World War II-era ammunition factory meant to supply the US military has been linked to more than a dozen mass shootings.

The Lake City Army Ammunition Plant shifted to commercial sales in 2011 and is now one of the biggest manufacturers of commercial AR-15 ammunition in the United States. According to The New York Times, it has made “hundreds of millions” of commercial rounds every year since 2011.

The facility was built during World War II and has since been operated by US government contractors to produce ammunition, but its focus has gradually shifted to commercial production as military demand waned, The Times reported.

By 2021, commercial production in the facility was more than two times higher than the rate of production for military ammunition, The Times found.

I see.  So we’re putting bullets at the beginning of articles now for idiots to read in two seconds.  Alrighty then.

So, here’s another take.  The U.S. military should in general avoid foreign entanglements.  American citizens should be armed, and in fact, “every terrible implement of the soldier” is the birthright of the American citizen.

Moreover, rather than lay off good men working at the ammo plant, they repurposed the plant to do what they should have been doing all along rather than enabling foreign entanglements, as well as making better American riflemen.

I love a happy ending.

I have nothing scientific to convey, just an anecdotal reference point.  My local Academy Sports, which almost always has fairly inexpensive 5.56mm and .223 for sale, has no 5.56mm at all.  They have very little .223, and what they do have is off-brand.

I’d be interested in your experience.  It appears as if there is a rush to buy this caliber and that can be seen at the local level.

Nationally, if you do Ammoseek 5.56 you’ll see a lot of 5.56mm in the price range from 50 – 60 cents per round.

This is almost enough to make me employ a polymer shell carrier.

Most of the comments are focused on moisture and/or salt.  Has this ever happened to you before?

PGF mentioned it, but Backfire is very concerned as am I.  Skip to the 7 minute mark.

Richard Mann writing at F&S.

The situation where the 10mm Auto has the bigges advantage is for backcountry survival or bear defense. Loaded with something like Buffalo Bore’s 220-grain hardcast Outdoorsman load at 1200 fps, it will hit harder than any 45 ACP load, and because of the smaller diameter non-deforming bullet, will penetrate deeper, even deeper than a 180-grain Barnes Triple Shock bullet fired out of a 30-06 rifle!

That’s his conclusion paragraph.  It’s true enough as it reads, but it’s incomplete.

He doesn’t consider use of 450 SMC, which would give him 230 grains running downrange at 1120 FPS.

Comparatively speaking, the hottest factory 185-grain .45 ACP load you can buy will generate only about 1,140 fps, and the fastest 230-grain offering only about 1,000 fps. Essentially, what you get with the .450 SMC are 10 mm velocities with a .45-caliber instead of a .40-caliber bullet.

I have no problem at all using a heavier bullet at comparable velocities.

Richard should expand his article (or do another one) on the use of 450 SMC and 460 Rowland.  Actually, he should have written this one to consider all of the 45 options.

Vista Outdoors Bought by Czech Company. Press Release.

News:

Current CEO Jason Vanderbrink Will Continue to Lead the Sporting Products Business and the U.S. Headquarters Will Remain in Anoka, Minnesota

Represents Largest Acquisition in the History of Czech Defense Industry

The Czechoslovak Group (“CSG”) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vista Outdoor Inc.’s (NYSE: VSTO) (“Vista Outdoor”) Sporting Products business for a total consideration of $1.91 billion, valuing the business at approximately 5x Fiscal Year 2024E EBITDA, including estimated standalone costs. CSG will partner with the existing management to pursue the continued growth path envisaged for the Sporting Products business over the coming years.

Headquartered in Anoka, Minnesota, Vista Outdoor’s Sporting Products business is a leading ammunition manufacturer in the U.S. commercial and law enforcement markets. It employs approximately 4,000 employees across its four U.S. factories and owns leading ammunition brands including CCI, Federal, HEVI-Shot, Remington and Speer.

CSG, based in Prague, Czech Republic, is a leading industrial technology company operating in five strategic business segments: Defense, Aerospace, Ammunition, Mobility and Business Projects. It is 100% controlled and led by Michal Strnad, who has transformed it into the most relevant Czech industrial group, with a strong international footprint. CSG employs more than 10,000 people worldwide and owns and manages a diverse portfolio of industrial and trade companies across the civil and defense sectors.

This isn’t good news for any American. Having ammo manufacturing dependent in any way upon the hearts and minds of foreigners in Europe seems like a wrong strategic move for the government and certainly doesn’t bode well for civilians.

Smith & Wesson just opened manufacturing near Knoxville, TN; many southern states have stepped up, and now most U.S. firearms manufacturing is done in the southern United States. It’s time to bring ammunition manufacturing as well to the last vestiges of freedom on earth in the Deep South and Mountain West.

The Hornady plant fire will certainly slow overall ammo production. The extent of manufacturing disruption at Hornady is hard to ascertain.

By now, you’ve heard about Lake City being ordered to stop sales to civilians.

A person with knowledge of the situation tells us that, more than just “considering” the move, Winchester, which operates the US Army’s Lake City ammunition plant, has been informed that it may be blocked from selling M855 and SS109 ammunition produced in excess of the military’s needs on the civilian market.

How would that affect the civilian supply of .223 and 5.56 ammunition? We understand that as much as 30% of the commercial market’s sales volume of .223/5.56 is produced by Lake City.

The White House is now denying this. Making your own seems like an increasingly attractive option. Ammunition control is gun control.

This seems to be an ongoing theme with the red tip straight wall cartridges Hornady makes.  They shatter into hundreds of pieces of lead.  This ruins meat.  They cannot be used for hunting like that.  They must be redesigned.  Fabricate them out of copper, perhaps.  Do something different than ruin meat.

For reasons that you can easily guess.

IL State Police modified their ammo background check system to where sellers in the state need to put in the caliber being sold. This is to track people and target them for buying calibers like 5.57/7.62×39 who didn’t register their “assault rifles”…they’re going for it https://t.co/8oNhPlbUy4 pic.twitter.com/4MgKWce24U

— President Non_Fudd (@Non_Fudd) October 6, 2023

Recoil.

Shared via Instagram by Aaron Cowan of Sage Dynamics, a UTM memo detailing how the BATFE has ordered UTM to stop selling their non-lethal training ammo (NLTA) to anyone other than law enforcement and the military. RECOIL has confirmed this directly with UTM.

How and why the BATFE feels they have this authority to decide law-abiding civilians can’t have NLTA arbitrarily is a mystery to us at this time.

We know force-on-force training isn’t something most of us do every weekend. The fact is, most of us never do it in our lives. That said, it is extremely useful training that should be available to every legal firearm owner.

This is another example of the BATFE using its made-up power to invent de facto laws and regulations to suppress Americans’ right to bear arms. Training and access to ammunition are central to our Second Amendment rights.

Beyond that, this ban is simply an absurd federal overstep since non-lethal training ammunition is non-lethal. No one is being protected by this ban. No one is being saved. This is purely about the BATFE and the executive branch as a whole furthering their crusade of civilian disarmament.

They don’t have the authority.  They just made that up out of whole cloth.  Hopefully this will be taken to court and the ATF slapped down.

Basically, the ATF doesn’t want you to engage in force on force training.

But notice what they did.  They banned it for civilian use, but didn’t include LE in that category.  This is a sinful omission, and probably intentional.

I believe the founders had something to say about occupying armies.